


Worried About The World's Greatest Gunman

by author203



Series: World's Greatest Gunman [3]
Category: Lupin III
Genre: Angst, F/M, Heartache, Love, One Shot, Red jacket i guess, Sad, Short, Short One Shot, Tear Jerker, author is in love with a figment of someone else's imagination, character driven, character driven is code for nothing happens, could be any jacket color, idk why this keeps happening, jigen in the hospital, jigen is my favorite, lupin worried, maybe idk, nothing happens, pops is my second favorite, probably need more tags lol, seriously sort of broke my own heart, why did I do this to him?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-18
Updated: 2021-03-18
Packaged: 2021-03-26 18:53:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,031
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30110460
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/author203/pseuds/author203
Summary: You at Jigen's hospital bedside.
Relationships: Jigen Daisuke/Original Female Character(s), Jigen Daisuke/Reader, Jigen Daisuke/You
Series: World's Greatest Gunman [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2184762
Kudos: 5





	Worried About The World's Greatest Gunman

**Author's Note:**

> Dang - made myself sad with this one. 
> 
> Enjoy!

**Worried About The World's Greatest Gunman**

Lupin lurked in the shadow of the doorway just watching them for a moment. He felt sheepish, like he wasn't supposed to be there, like he was intruding on something private, sacred. He half-expected her to have him thrown out as soon as she realized he was there. He clutched the wilted flowers he had brought, braced himself, and entered the room.

She didn't look up, didn't even notice him until the thief cleared his throat softly, said, “Cupcake?”

“Oh, Lupin.” She looked up, swiped the back of her hand over her eyes, trying to hide the tears he had already seen. “Goemon was here. You just missed him.”

“I saw him outside, yeah.”

She nodded. “And I saw Fujiko... Yesterday? Day before? I don't know; it all blends together...”

“You should rest. Go home for a while. Sleep in a bed.”

She could not bear to think of sleeping in that bed without him. How large and empty it would be. How small she would seem. How alone she would feel. She shook her head forcefully. “No. No. I will be here when...” She wanted to say _when he wakes up_. But _when_ was starting to look more like _if_ and _if_ was starting to look less likely with each day that limped by. She had been in this chair at his bedside for – how long? She'd lost track.

Long enough for there to be a good amount of stubble on his cheeks that he usually kept shaved. Long enough for that tobacco stench to have faded somewhat. All trace of his spicy aftershave gone. All she could smell now were those stale, sad hospital scents; disinfectant, sharp and stark and sanitary. It was cold in the room and she shivered, knowing how much he hated being cold, knowing the blanket they allowed him was far too thin, nearly useless.

There were tubes everywhere, going into him, coming out, machines beeping softly in the background, but she had been here so long she didn't hear them anymore. Sort of how people can live under an airport or next to railroad tracks, she thought. You just get so used to the noise you don't pay it any mind.

She was holding his hand, stroking his knuckles with her thumb, as he had so often done for her. She kept touching his ring – the one she had chosen for him, the one she had had engraved, the one she had placed there, the one he had worn for a good while now.

After a brief silence, Lupin asked, “How is he?”

“Still no change.” She did not want to talk about that, so instead she said, “Goemon told me goodbye, like he was leaving, like I wouldn't see him for a while.”

“Yeah.”

“Did he say where?”

“No. Probably back to Japan, but I'm not sure. Just out in the wild somewhere to sit under a waterfall for a while.” He paused. “It's how he deals with,” Lupin gestured toward the unconscious gunman. “Stuff,” he finished weakly.

“Does that work?”

“For him it does.”

“Maybe I'll try it sometime,” she said, and gave a little half-hearted smile.

“I'm sorry...”

“Don't.” She shook her head again, but softer this time. “Just don't. It won't change anything and I can't stand to hear it.”

Lupin nodded, busied himself by throwing the dead flowers away, replacing them with the ones he had brought, filling the vase with water.

“Koichi might come again soon. It's been a few days since I've seen him. He'll arrest you, if he finds you here.”

Lupin thought maybe she said that to run him off, get him to go away and leave her alone, but he ignored the hint. “Don't worry about Pops. He can't catch me.”

Lupin looked down at Jigen's right hand, cuffed to the bed frame. As if he posed any kind of flight risk. The fedora was on the little side table next to her chair, a little worse for wear but still in one piece, and somehow the gunman looked smaller and frailer without it. Lupin thought Jigen looked too lean. Not that the gunman had ever carried much extra on his lanky frame, but the sight of his sunken cheeks made Lupin uneasy. She kept his Magnum in the purse on her lap, close by should he wake and want it.

“This isn't right,” she muttered. “This isn't how it was supposed to be.”

“He saved all of us...” Lupin offered.

“But at what cost,” she whispered bitterly, and immediately regretted it. She liked Lupin – most days – and the rest of them too. They were like family to her now. She had been with them long enough. She never wanted anything bad to happen to any of them.

But especially not to Daisuke.

Why did it have to be him, laying here, fighting for his life?

Her heart couldn't take much more, she thought. This reminded her so much of when her father had died. That had been sudden, unexpected, instant. Daisuke continued to linger, fluttering between this world and the next, and she couldn't decide which was worse. Certain despair or precarious hope.

“I'm sorry,” she said. “I didn't mean...”

“I know, Cupcake. It's okay. I understand,” Lupin answered quietly.

“I told him to be careful. To not do anything stupid. To not be a hero.”

“You know how stubborn he is. How he never listens.”

“I know.”

She cast her eyes down, looked at her left hand, remembering. The snowflake ring, and when he had given it to her. The matching wedding band that had joined it only a few months later. The sapphire bracelet he had given her on their first Valentine's Day; what they called their “second anniversary.” She couldn't look at these things and think about what they meant without an overwhelming urge to start sobbing.

To avoid that, she turned her attention to the thief, who was leaning against the wall near the foot of the bed. She wanted to say something to him, but she didn't know what. What was there to say?

The silence stretched long between them.

“I listen. Sometimes. And I'm not any more stubborn than either of you.”

She started crying again at hearing his voice, a little worn, sounding dry and very soft, but his – one she had not heard in days, weeks.

“Hello, darling.”

“Daisuke,” she croaked, a tear sliding down her face, but this time from relief.

“Don't cry. I'm not dead yet.” He moved to lift his hand, to brush her tear away, but couldn't, turned to Lupin. “If you're only going to stand there and gawk at me, you can at least make yourself useful,” Jigen said, nodding to the cuffs.

“Sure, sure,” Lupin said grinning, coming forward. “How are you feeling?” Lupin made quick work of the locks, stuffed the cuffs in his jacket pocket so they wouldn't have to look at them. “Jigen?”

“Like hell. But better, with Cupcake here.” His hand free now, he reached over to caress her cheek, and she held his hand there with both of hers for a moment.

“Too stubborn to die it seems,” the thief gave a little laugh, trying to lighten things. His relief was also plainly evident. He wasn't even trying to hide it.

“And I'm grateful for that,” she put in quickly, as Jigen took his hand away from her face, fell back onto the meager stuffing that passed for a pillow in this place.

“Hell happened to me?” he wondered.

“Oh, nothing much to be worried about,” Lupin explained. “Nothing that a few major surgeries and a couple blood transfusions, couldn't fix. You know, just an average Tuesday.”

Jigen wanted to laugh at that, but didn't have the strength. “Helicopter?”

“Gone.”

“Shame. I liked that one.”

“It can be replaced.”

Jigen tried to smile, then frowned. “Huh. Thought you were dead.”

“No. Not me. Thanks to you.”

“Goe?”

“He's fine. Off to find his waterfall. I'll let him know you're awake and asked about him.”

“That's good.” Jigen sounded tired, like the few words he had given up had taken almost everything out of him. He must still not be quite himself, she thought; he hasn't once asked for his hat yet. Or his gun. “Pops?”

“Fine,” Lupin said. “He's fine.”

“He's even been here to visit you a few times,” she added.

“Nice of him. The old man.” Jigen did not want to admit how old he felt in that moment.

The three of them were quiet for a little while, she sitting by the bed, Lupin standing next to it, looming over his partner, his best friend, his bodyguard. “Did you forget to ask about somebody?” Lupin teased.

“Nope.”

“You don't care about my Fujicakes?”

“She's fine,” Jigen assured him.

“And how can you possibly know that?”

“Because you're here worried about me. And not in a hole somewhere, drinking yourself to death, crying over her.”

She laughed a little at that, happy that her husband was awake, appeared to be on the mend, was not only talking, but giving Lupin as good as he got.

“That's fair,” Lupin smiled.

Jigen took a deep breath, lightly squeezed her hand. She tried not to notice it was with just a fraction of his regular strength. He was tired enough that he didn't even want to smoke. Didn't want to drink. Wasn't hungry. Only wanted to sleep some more. “How long they going to keep me here?” he asked.

“Oh, a while yet. But don't worry. I'll spring you before they want to move you to somewhere... uh... more secure,” Lupin promised him.

“I'm tired, boss.”

“Rest then, Jigen-chan. Rest. You certainly earned it.”

Lupin patted Jigen's shoulder, nodded to Cupcake, before turning to leave. He wanted them to have a moment together before Jigen gave out completely. The thief left them, stood outside the door for a short time, out of sight, beyond relieved, slouched against the wall, hands in his pockets, just listening.

He heard her say, “I missed you.”

Then Jigen answered, “Not too much.”

“Enough.”

“Wouldn't want you not to miss me...”

A bit of silence.

Then, “Cupcake... I'm just so tired.”

“You can rest. I'll be here.”

“I meant, of the life.”

“I've told you before. You can quit any time. I have enough laid back. We'd be ok. And I'd sleep better...”

“I know.” Lupin heard Jigen sigh, “He won't like it.”

“We'll talk about it later. Right now, just rest.”

“Damn it, woman, I love you.”

“Don't ever do this to me again,” she said seriously.

Lupin waited, but didn't hear any more. He pictured Jigen nodding weakly, smiling at her, closing his eyes.

So.

He had pulled through, but Lupin had still lost him anyway. How would he tell the others? Fujiko wouldn't care much, but Goemon would take it pretty hard.

The thief looked up, saw Zenigata rounding a corner. Pops stopped short, pointed at him, was about to shout his name. But Lupin shook his head, put a finger to his lips, jerked his head toward the door of Jigen's room.

Lupin pushed himself off the wall, approached the inspector.

“How is he?” Pops asked.

“Better. Awake now.”

“You don't seem... I thought you'd be happier?”

“Pops. Let me buy you a drink, and I'll tell you about it.”

“I don't know...”

“You can arrest me after.”

“Mean that?”

“Sure. I've got some time to kill. Might even let you book me.”

They both knew he would escape. If not before that, well, then shortly after. But Lupin looked miserable, and Pops, with his big heart and lovable nature, took pity on him. “Fine, Lupin. I've got a little time myself. Let's get a drink, and you can tell me what's on your mind.”

“It's a lot,” Lupin warned.

“I've got time,” the inspector said, placing a hand on one of Lupin's slumped shoulders.

“Thanks, Pops.”

The inspector nodded. And they both walked down the bright corridor, away from Jigen's dark room, toward the bustle of a busy world that had not waited, and went on turning without them.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading. Comments welcome!


End file.
